As the captain of digital transformation, procurement wins The Ballon d’Or*.

Agile, strategic and goal driven: the traits of a champion.

Digital transformation – or digitization – is a major technological and strategic challenge for procurement departments, involving a global overhaul of the organization. Collaboration with internal stakeholders, management of supplier networks, alignment of business processes, etc. — procurement is rapidly changing to take on these challenges. Business driver, value-add generator, strategic powerhouse; how did procurement become the captain of digital transformation?

A look at the playbook for digital transformation.

On the field, procurement plays several positions. Dribbling between different categories, excluding non-certified suppliers, scoring savings — the procurement “Number 10” knows how to lead a team to the final. What are the tactics to achieving this?

Attacking uncontrolled spending

Although the role of pure cost killer is mostly in the past, controlling expenses remains the number one objective for 78% of Procurement Departments according to The Deloitte Global CPO Survey 2018. This puts procurement in a highly strategic position. Chasing down expenses, optimizing the purchasing process, outsourcing or standardizing purchases — it’s critical not to leave any advantages for the opposing team.

The company goalkeeper

Determine devotes numerous articles and whitepapers to performing due diligence, the Sapin II law and compliance management overall. Supplier risk is a real issue, probably one of the main challenges that procurement must focus on. Otherwise, it could be a red card for the company.

Supplier relationship coach

Innovation, certification, CSR, supply chain security, product/service quality; supplier relationships are at the heart of procurement’s role. That’s why procurement must take a leadership position in establishing a relationship of trust with suppliers, and also keep an eye on find potential advantages for the company. A great coach knows how to build a team, create synergies between players and motivate them to win championships.

Through digital transformation, procurement scores

It’s not easy to excel in each position on the field. That’s why procurement is turning to digital to building a consistently winning franchise. Collaborative networks, predictive analysis tools, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and modular, cloud-based procurement solutions — digital facilitates optimized ball handling that enables the procurement team to score.

From top management to suppliers, no one sits on the sidelines

But, Digital Transformation, which includes important structural changes, goes way beyond just the procurement organization to include everyone in the company, as well as external stakeholders. There is a golden rule to making this happen: don’t leave anyone on the sidelines. Management support is essential, as is the active participation of all departments in the project implementation of a solution. And never forget the suppliers who will be affected by the changes made to familiar processes, and who will directly contribute to the innovation and the competitiveness of the company (not to mention the success of the implementation).

To facilitate this approach, you definitely want to recruit a user-friendly SaaS solution like the Determine Cloud Platform, which seamlessly integrates with ERPs and other back-end systems, to your team.

Match ball: quantitative and qualitative ROIs

The procurement team leads the game, and the effort pays off. Quantitative and qualitative ROI are already visible:

Facilitated collaboration between services

Optimized and standardized processes

Guaranteed visibility across all data and stakeholders

Risks control related to third parties

Certified contract compliance

Supplier performance and innovation

Improved team efficiency

Expenses under control

Costs minimized

With so many points on the ROI scoreboard, when the ref blows the whistle at the end of the game the procurement team wins the Ballon d’Or.

Ready to build (or build onto) a winning procurement process? Start your training with a demo request from our experts and discover how the Determine Cloud Platform helps you to fulfill your role as captain of Digital Transformation.

*For those who are not immersed in football/soccer or World Cup lingo, the Ballon d’Or award is presented to the best player at each FIFA World Cup finals, with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee and the winner voted for by representatives of the media.

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